[RC. Room] Hiding

[Russell Parkhurst]

Russell burst into the crowded common room and dived under a nearby table. He ignored the funny or confused looks he was getting from people. Suddenly a group of giggling girls burst through the door and looked around. Rus shrank deeper into the darkness under the table. Rus watched their feet shuffle along the floor, holding his breath, and waited for them to go.

They didn't. They had been following him since he crashed a really funny joke to the grumpy librarian and got a smile out of the old bag. He wasn't sure but he knew they had followed him from there: girls make so much noise when they are trying to be quiet. He had managed to get ahead but now he hoped and prayed that they would abandon their stalk and continue with their normal routine.

So for now he hid under the table, holding his breath and watching feet. They hadn't seen him. He flopped onto his back and bent his knees, putting his feet flat on the floor. He locked his fingers together behind his head and sighed (quietly). In his hiding place Russell was safe from giggling girls. Thank God! he thought.

[Helia Ollivander]

'Irritating iggs...' she thought with a grimace, holding her head as a gaggle of giggling fifth years wandered into the common room. "Could you please keep it down. Some people are trying to study... and ride out the last bit of a pepper up hang over." She said the last bit very quietly. "Maybe I should've taken Bogs advice to get an apprentice..." she thought a bit blurrily.

She was surprised at just how badly her head hurt, she didn't think pepper up potions were supposed to treat a body like this, and yet it did. Of course it would do something like this to her. Twas just her luck. First the store was getting no foot traffic, then her grades started slipping. The quidditch team was slowly... achingly slowly, growing, and that waws good, but where would she find the time to schedule practices?!

Her eyes returned to her potions homework, scanning over a paragraph about wormwood again... and again... and again... "Insufferable root!" she groaned as she slammed the book shut, letting her head fall against the hard cover, then jumping up and tugging at her hair "Oww... bad idea... very bad idea Helia... Ohhhh..." she wandered over to a chaise and flopped onto it, none too gracefully, letting her head hang off the side a bit. She looked up slightly and saw a Ravenclaw boy, a bit older than her, seated under a table. "Comfy under there?" she asked curiously.

[Russell Parkhurst]

Russell winked at Helia and nodded. He lifted his forefinger to his lips and whispered, 'shh!' Then he pointed to the group of feet still hanging about the table he was hiding under. He hoped this particular girl wouldn't give him away. His hiding place was good, but if they found him ... he shuddered to think.

[Helia Ollivander]

She rolled her eyes and looked over at the girls, "Up to your dormitories before I assign you detention with Professor Fagin. Disrupting the peace in the Ravenclaw Common Room is a very serious offence in the new Head Girls book, and I would certainly hate to think of you ladies stuck in the musty old Muggle studies room with an older and mustier teacher. So, scoot, will you!"

The young girls gave her a chorus of death glares, then walked haugtily up the girls staircase, necks craning for any sign of the boy who had foiled whatever odd plans they had brewed up for him.

She groaned and turned over on the couch. "If you ever need to get them off your tail again, there's a secret passage on the third floor that leads straight up here, right out the picture of Paracelsus. There's another one on the fifth floor that drops straight to the dungeons."

[Russell Parkhurst]

Russell watched the gaggle disappear up the stares then hesitantly came out from under the table. He straighten up and looked at the staircase, "thanks for that. They would have tied me up and dressed me up in dressrobes two hundred years old." Rus shuddered.

"And thanks for the tips, been here a long time but still get lost on my way to Divinations." He smiled at Helia and walked around the sofa. He looked her up and down. "You don't look so well?" he asked jokingly, "what did you do last night?"

[Helia Ollivander]

"Last night?" she looked at Rus, clearly befuddled. She furrowed her brow and began mumbling "Last night... Last night... What day is today? Monday... Tuesday... Wednesday! Today's Wednesday... Um I got out of Potions class, got my pepper up potions refilled, came up here and did my homework, ran to the shop to finish the wands on back order, came back here and did some extra credit work for Potions... then I tried to finish the sketches for some new quidditch plays... Where'd those go anyhow..." she sat up and looked around the common room, a slight look of panic evident on her face.

[Russell Parkhurst]

"Whoo!" Russell huffed, putting a hand on Helia's shoulder, "you are working too hard, my friend! You need a break, a very long, relaxing break! How's about some quidditch?" he asked, smiling, "nothing serious, just a bit of fun!" Rus was keen to get started playing or at least practicing. Right then he would have given anything to be on his broom and in the air.

[Helia Ollivander]

She looked at him skeptically for a moment, then shrugged, "Eh, why not. Maybe I'll fall off the broom and be excused from lessons," she said with a sarcastic chuckle. "I'll go grab my broom and meet you on the pitch." She stood up and headed for the girls dormitory stairs, "Oh, and if I were I'd get a move on, because the second those girls see I'm out of here they'll be hunting you down again," she shrugged apologetically then disappeared up the staircase.

[Russell Parkhurst]

"Right!" Russell said, "thanks!" He ran up the stairs behind her and dashed up to his dorm. He lifted the lid of his trunk and pulled out his broom. He ran back to the stairs and was about to run down them when he heard the shrieking girls down the stairs.

He sighed and jumped onto his broom. "Flashy or escape?" he asked himself. "Flashy it is!" He flew down the stairs and into the common room, around the gaggle of girls and out of a window into the fresh air outside.